Syria: Turkey denies USA version of Trump-Erdogan call

The Kurdish militia that controls Afrin, the People's Defense Units (YPG), has the support of several thousand US special forces in the region.

A person familiar with the matter said, "The allied military headquarters in Baghdad that is leading the fight against the Islamic State in Syria".

"With the Olive Branch operation, we have once again thwarted the game of those sneaky forces whose interests in the region are different", Erdogan said in a speech to provincial leaders in Ankara.

Two US defense officials told CNN last week that the US military continues to carry out overt patrols in the Manbij area, with the primary mission of deterring conflict.

Disagreements over the status and future of Syria's Kurds have strained relations between Ankara and Washington.

But the assault has raised fears among North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member states that the fight against Islamic extremists in Syria might be impacted by Turkey's push.

The U.N. envoy for Syria said on Wednesday that he was "optimistic" about this round of talks.

"This is clearly one of the complications that is going to arise as the USA extends its military presence in Syria beyond the end of ISIS", said Bulent Aliriza, the director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

According to the USA statement, Trump relayed "concerns" over the escalating violence in the Kurdish enclave in Afrin and urged Turkey to "de-escalate, limit its military actions and avoid civilian casualties".

Speaking prior to the two leaders' conversation Tuesday, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman, said the currents running through Turkish domestic politics are tightly intertwined with perceptions of the US.

"The Kurds fought Daesh, to defend the whole world, they coordinated with the US-led coalition", said Omar Mahmoud, a 35-year-old civilian, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Turkey launched the offensive on January 20 to drive out Syrian Kurdish fighters it regards as a security threat due to their affiliation with outlawed Kurdish rebels in Turkey.

Washington has been restrained in its response to the Afrin operation but is likely to be more exercised by a Turkish push towards Manbij, which marks the beginning of the range of influence of its proxies, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), that stretches north to the nearby Turkish border and east towards Iraq.

Syria's main Kurdish groups have not received a final invite to a peace congress scheduled to take place in Russian Federation next week and will not attend while a Turkish assault on Afrin continues, a senior Kurdish official said on Thursday.

However, observers have expressed fear of US-Turkey confrontation in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who, he said, had suggested the formation of a "30 km security line" inside Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Those tensions boiled over after the United States announced earlier this month that it would build a 30,000-strong border force, including the YPG, that would patrol Syria's frontiers - a situation Turkey said constituted an intolerable national security threat.

Officials from Erdogan's office said Thursday the Turkish leader is visiting the command center overseeing the offensive, codenamed "Olive Branch", in Hatay province.

Bad weather, including heavy rain, has hampered Turkey's offensive. Besides, the YGP has enormous local support in Kurdish towns along the border.

Meanwhile, Sharfan Darvish of Manbij Military Council, a unit of, YPG Syrian-Kurd militia has said that his forces were preparing to confront Turkish soldiers.

"Turkey has not been able yet to shore up its control over any of the villages it has advanced on", said the Observatory's Abdulrahman.

He said the Red Crescent could accommodate many more people than expected but no civilians had come to the camps after the recent escalation in Afrin as they were not allowed to leave.

Russia's top diplomat went on accusing the USA of attempts to disrupt dialogue with Syria's official government in Damascus, headed by President Bashar Al Assad.

In 2016, the Kurdish-led SDF pushed Islamic State fighters out of Manbij. "The United States wants to have its cake and to eat it too".

Others say the operation aims to oust a militia of between 8,000 to 10,000 fighters affiliated with the People's Protection Units or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish group that has controlled territory in northern Syria and a proven top USA ally in fighting the Islamic State group.

A new front has opened up in Syria's long running, multi-sided civil war.

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